Pam of Emanuel Medical Center in Turlock, California said: This makes no sense. An RN makes WAY more money than a monitor tech. A monitor tech is basically an uneducated person who has taken an EKG class and on the job training. I know. I'm a monitor tech lol! I make
$12.88 an hour.

the valley sucks big time when it comes to salary.

i don't agree with you about "a monitor tech is basically an uneducated person...blah,blah,blah." you still had to get some type of education...right? education is getting tought something that you did not know before.

Look, EKG Recognition is a 12 week course you can take at any hospital for about $60. If your lucky, they will hire you. Most hospitals dont have the need for more than a handful of monitor techs as there are only so many floors that have telemetry. My hospital has only 3 areas. The telemetry floor, the ICU and the Oncology floor. So only 3 per any given shift for the entire hospital. Its a tough job to get but an easy one if you like sitting for 12hrs a day.

The ryhthms are not too difficult if you remember the shape and origin of each beat, whether atrial, ventricular, and there is a bit of measuring of the different complexes of the beat; P wave, QRS, ST-wave, etc, and then learning to discern changes in the rhythm, what is dangerous and what just needs to be watched. I was a CCU nurse for 15 years and EKGs are fascinating.